UPDATE....My Goals for 2011 before baby #2 gets here in May

I wrote a list of goals back at the midway point in my pregnancy that I hoped to complete before the new baby arrives in May. Here is the update on those items.

1. To potty train my three year old. This is a current work in progress. He is at least wearing the pull ups now and sometimes goes to the potty. Still a nightmare!
2. To change my three year olds room into a big boy room and move the baby furniture into our now office/guestroom for baby #2's nursery. COMPLETED
3. To figure out what to do with an entire office/guestroom full of stuff when there is nowhere in our ever shrinking house to put it. COMPLETED
4. To go through all of Jackson's clothes from the time he was born until now and sort through it all for selling in the Just Between Friends sale and keeping a few sentimental pieces without totally loosing it emotionally. I so should have done this BEFORE I got pregnant. COMPLETED
5. To tag and prepare all of my items for my first time consigning in the Just Between Friends sale at the end of February. COMPLETED
6. To have another god forsaken garage sale to further "eliminate files" as my husband calls it. We are currently preparing all the items for the sale and it should take place in the next two weekends, weather permitting.
7. Once all of the stuff has been sorted, sold, donated or thrown away, my plan is to reorganize my house and to try and get it at least semi livable for at least another year until we can hopefully purchase a new bigger house.
8. Prepare the nursery for baby #2. COMPLETED.....Post to follow of its TOTAL cuteness!!!
9. Clean the house from top to bottom. Like the baseboards and blinds type of clean.
10. To read a few books on breastfeeding and sleeping that will hopefully help make both of those things go better this time around. Currently reading several books and will complete before baby arrives hopefully.

So, 5 out of 10 are completed with the others in progress. I still have 6 more weeks till go time and hopefully I will complete this whole list by then. Wish me luck!

Garage Sale Newbie

So, we finally had our garage sale this past weekend. My husband has been begging me to do this for years and I finally caved in and agreed. NEVER AGAIN!!! I have never had a garage sale and had no idea what all was involved. The whole process of going through all of the things that you have accumulated over the years is exhausting. Its really hard for me to let go of things. I seem to have a memory or attachment to everything. I found things that I didn't even know I still had. Such as the dress I wore to my high school graduation (over 10 years old!), notes between friends from high school (man were those interesting), college projects and papers (I was pretty impressed with a few) and PICTURES. Some of the old pictures I found were seriously hilarious! It was pretty fun taking a walk down memory lane. But the task of getting all these items set up and ready for the garage sale was not fun. We had to borrow tables and rent a clothing rack. The first two weekends we attempted to have the sale were rained out and this past weekend was hot and very windy. The actual garage sale itself wasn't that bad minus the few freak shows that showed up. We sold some things on Friday afternoon and then we didn't get out there on Saturday until 8:30 because my husband had to work and I didn't want to go out there by myself. When my husband went to put the signs out he literally had people following him back to the house. Overall we made about $250.00 which isn't bad but we still have a ton of stuff to get rid of. I think we are going to try again this Saturday and then whatever we have left is going to the Goodwill. 

Here are a few things I learned throughout this process that may help you out in your future garage sales:

• If you say the sale starts at 9am that really means 8am. Even if you state no early birds.
• People will try and haggle with you over a quarter. 
• Put a price on as many items as you can in advance.
• Be organized. We had many people tell us how nice it was to see a garage sale that was nicely organized.
• Hard core garage sale people are a little crazy, be prepared to deal with it. We had one lady that stayed over an hour and told us her whole life story and all her families dirty little secrets. Another lady almost shit herself over a Sex and the City game. That same lady also had on a dress that didn't leave much to the imagination, she must have been channeling Samantha. 
• Make sure you have bags to put the purchased items in, they expect it!
• Have a calculator handy so that you don't look like a total moron when trying to add up items and giving change.
• Be prepared for your children to find items that they don't think need to be sold. Mine found an old fax machine that he now is using to conduct his business on. 
• Watch out for groups of people that come together and spread out. I discovered that this is a tactic to distract you from any one person and a perfect opportunity to steal things. 
• Don't be afraid to put anything out for sale. The things that I thought would never sell were the first things to go and the things that I thought would sell quick we still have. 

Here are a few pictures I took:

Things I am currently obsessed with….

• Having a garage sale. I have never had one before and I can promise you this will be the last one I ever have! We have been trying to get everything together to have it for the past three weekends and it just hasn't worked out. But this weekend it has to happen. We borrowed tables from people and they must be returned.

• Blogging!!! I could spend hours reading about how to add blinkies, buttons, templates, backgrounds, headers and a million other things that I'm sure I haven't even discovered yet.

• Figuring out how to track ovulation, it's not as easy as I thought it would be. You need all sorts of things: Basal body thermometer, ovulation tests, charts, calendars, books to figure it all out and TIME!

 

• Letting go of things that are taking up too much space in our ever shrinking house. Everything has some sort of sentimental value to me. If it weren't for my husband I would probably end up on that show, Hoarders. 

• Couponing!!! Love saving money!

• Two songs that I swear if I play one more time my husband may kill me. The first is, The House That Built Me, by Miranda Lambert! The second is, American Honey, by Lady Antebellum! Click on the song name and you can read the lyrics. I must be in a place of nostalgia because both of these songs deal with a remembrance and a longing for the past. They also make me think about the life, values and stability I hope I'm providing to my children through our home and the memories they'll always carry with them.

  

• The Real Housewives of New Jersey and New York on Bravo. I seriously can't get enough of these crazy women. They are completely "Off the Rails" as Bethany from the RHONY would say. 

• My iPhone! I love everything about it. I've had it for about a year and it's still not old yet. My husband says he became an iPhone widow the day I brought it home.

• Homemade Beef Stroganoff. I made it for the first time about two months ago and OMG, it's delicious and I just can't stop making it!

• The weather at this exact moment. As I sit here typing this, the weather outside is getting bad. The tornado sirens just started going off! Better save this and turn computer off. OK…..I'm back, that was a crazy storm that kind of freaked me out. Gotta love storm season in Oklahoma.